Take a hammer and tap the gear and it will slide back down. Then lube the
shaft w/ some spray lubricant.
Tony

"steve" wrote in message
om...
The starter drive gear is stuck in the up (engaged ) positon on my 97
Force 120 outboard. Its a mercury unit. This developed after
repeating cranking to start it after long storage.

The drive gear will turn when I force turn the flywheel, it just won't
come down. My battery is fully charged but there's no juice going
anywhere now.. I turn the ignition switch nothing happens , no sound
no move. Could the starter do this ?